An absolutely fantastic fusion Greek-Australian baker.
The desserts here are not to be missed.
(And if you are eating in the Greek Quarter or Chinatown ...
Just save room for dessert and head down here.)
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The lineup is 1/3 Greek Traditional, 1/3 Aussie Traditional and 1/3 Greek-Aussie fusion.
The most common fusion dishes they have are traditional Greek pastries such as baklava coated in rich deep chocolate.
Believe me, I looked long and hard at those items.
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That said, I had heard much about Australian mud cake and decided I wanted to have that before I leave.
Mississippi mud cake and Australian mud cake are two completely different dishes - even though both of them are nominally chocolate cakes.
The angle on a Mississippi mudcake is to introduce one strong unexpected taste ingredient to give the cake some personality.
Marshmallows are a common choice.
Some cooks use whiskey.
There are a lot of ways to follow the Mississippi mudcake formula and come up with something really tempting.
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Australian mudcake is a more classical approach.
This is going to be chocolate, pure and simple.
The personality of the cake comes from the texture which is designed to minimize the amount of crumbing.
This is a solid full bodied cake that cuts cleanly both with the cake-cutter and with your fork.
It holds its form even better than does pound cake.
It is full of chocolate taste, yes.
But what makes International Cakes' version so good
(and maybe other Aussie bakers do this)
Is an incredibly chocolately very firm frosting.
This is not a wimpy smooshy frosting.
The chocolate frosting holds its form as if it were a Hershey bar.
Firm frosting with firm cake makes a lot of difference.
You can work a lot more chocolate taste into frosting than you can into cake.
International Cake puts a whole of frosting on its mudcake.
The final result is knock-you-to-the-moon.
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I would have a hard time having not having another mudcake if I ever returned to International Cakes.
But those Greek pastries look awfully good.
The fusion items look awfully good.
And Aussies bake a lot more things than just mudcake.
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So many desserts ...
So little time. read more